Students' English Misses the Mark

By

Barbara Martinez

Updated March 15, 2011 12:01 a.m. ET

More than a third of New York City students who entered first grade in 2003 identified as English language learners couldn't pass an English-language proficiency test last year when they were in the seventh grade, according to Department of Education data.

The numbers were culled by Eva Moskowitz, a former Manhattan city councilwoman known for her aggressive scrutiny of the Department of Education and clashes with the teachers union. She is now the head of a charter-school network.

Ms. Moskowitz said she requested the information from the DOE and compiled a report—which she plans to release Tuesday—because she is concerned that large numbers of English language learners are not getting appropriate instruction. While the city has made some progress, "we need bolder, faster change," she said.

ENLARGE

"It shouldn't take six years" for students to achieve proficiency on the state language test, Ms. Moskowitz said. She argued that there is no accountability mechanism to ensure that children are taught English; the data are not publicly available and incentives prevent schools from prioritizing graduating children from English language learner status.

The Department of Education said Ms. Moskowitz's report doesn't acknowledge several markers that show the city has been making progress. It noted that about 25% of English language learners are also classified as special-education students.

"By every measure we've got, we're seeing our schools making progress with this population from where we started eight years ago" when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the schools, said
Shael Polakow-Suransky,
the DOE's chief academic officer.

"That doesn't change the fact that too many kids aren't succeeding at the level that we expect and doesn't change that we need to continue to approach this with a great sense of urgency," Mr. Polakow-Suransky said.

Mr. Polakow-Suransky said that the graduation rate for English language learners increased 13 percentage points to 40% between 2005 and 2009. The dropout rate fell 11 percentage points to 19% during that time.

The exam at issue—the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test—is administered by schools once a year, typically in April or May. It is different than the state's proficiency test in English language arts that is required of all third- through eighth-graders.

Of New York City's 1.1 million schoolchildren, 153,338, or 14%, are classified as English language learners. The DOE spent more than $250 million on extra instruction for them in 2009. About 20% of students have come to the U.S. in the past two years, but nearly 70% who have received six years or more of services were born here.

The research report is Ms. Moskowitz's first in five years, and she is working on others. When she was a councilwoman from 2000 to 2006, she often published reports—written in Cliffs Notes style—that tackled topics such as the school budget and teacher contracts.

Ms. Moskowitz ran for Manhattan borough president in 2005 and is often mentioned as a potential future mayoral candidate. A spokesman said the new report is "absolutely not" an indication that Ms. Moskowitz is seeking a bigger public profile.

Ms. Moskowitz—whose hunt for space for her schools has touched off heated neighborhood battles—said she wrote the report because her organization has a "dual mission": To educate the 2,400 children who attend the Success Academy charter schools and "to change the rules of the game even for the kids that we're not educating."

In general, English language learners perform more poorly than the rest of the population. Citywide, about 58% of students were deemed proficient in English in 2010, while only 32% of English language learners were.

Federal and state guidelines call for students identified as English language learners to leave support programs after three years. In New York City, only 30% of students reached proficiency in that time frame.

The DOE said that it interprets the guidelines differently, and said that students must show progress, not necessarily achieve proficiency. The department said students who don't get to proficiency may do better on the test every year.

It is not unusual for children in any city, not just New York, to take significantly more than three years to reach a certain level of academic development in English, said
Jennifer Austin,
an associate professor and expert in linguistics and language acquisition at Rutgers University in Newark. "The reason these children are falling behind is that they are being asked to become literate in English and learn academic content at the same time," Ms. Austin said.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.